Apartheid

I spent my last day in South Africa in its largest city, Johannes-
burg. Near the city is a large township called Soweto, which stands for "South West Township." While it is quite a nice place now, it wasn't always such a pleasant place to visit.

For many, many years in South Africa, the human rights one had depended on the colour of one's skin. The government had an official policy called apartheid, which means "separateness."

Under apartheid, the government determined where you lived and worked, who you could and couldn't marry, whether or not you could vote and controlled many other basic rights that we Canadians take for granted.

Many South Africans worked hard to bring an end to apartheid, one of the most famous being Nelson Mandela. Mr. Mandela spent 27 years in the prison cell pictured above, because it was against the law to protest the laws of the country.

Finally, in 1994, after much pressure from South Africans and people around the world, apartheid ended and all South African citizens were given the right to vote. And they elected Mr. Mandela as their first president!

I visited two museums that showed what it was like to live during apartheid in South Africa. It's important to remember how things were so that it never happens again.

The township that I visited, Soweto, was once a place where black people were forced to live, in tiny houses with no electricity or water. Now anyone can live there, and people are very proud of their homes and businesses. I was driven around Soweto by a man who grew up in Soweto, lived through apartheid, and had spent time in jail because he belonged to a group that was trying to end it. He had many sad stories to tell, but his last story had a happy ending. He said that he wants everyone to know about apartheid, and how hard people in South Africa worked to make their country a better place for everyone.

A sign in the museum


T-shirts on sale in Soweto